Real Fear
by C. O. Rosette
Summary: It's been months after the defeat of Pitch Black but the guardians are still plagued with horrible, nightmarish premonitions that are impossible to interpret. All they know is that a dark force is coming that could potentially cause the world's destruction if not taken care of. As always, it's up to the guardians to take action and protect the people of the world against this evil.
1. Chapter 1

Darkness. It's all there is to see. There seems to be darkness all around. But why? They defeated that nuisance that thought he represented what fear really is, Pitch Black. So then why are all his dreams even more so vividly _terrifying_ than before?

The patter of footsteps. He runs. He sees something dark stretch out above his head, it has sort of tree-branch-type qualities, though it's unlike a branch from any tree _he's _ever seen before. It stretches further and further until it is far over his eye-shot. He can do nothing but run, run for his life through the barren, snowy trees that are his dreams.

He begins to notice something, a figure in the distance and yet straight in front of him. It is an unusually tall, humanoid figure, who's image is growing threateningly closer with every stride towards it. But it is only when he finally too close as it is too late the moment he actually recognizes the strikingly familiar being of far beyond anything that Pitch's tricks of the light could ever be as horrifying as.

Jack bolts straight up in his bed. He desperately swings his head around, glaring in every direction before he realizes it was just another dream. He sighs and climbs out of bed, throwing off the covers and grabbing his always blue, always frosty hoodie. He takes one last look up at the ice that breaches the top of his icy pond for reassurance and is met with the comforting glow of the moon through the clouds. For Jack, the moon is a relieving abundance as the man in the moon is always guiding him, acting as his own, personal guardian in many of his times of need. Still, as relieved as Jack is to be back in the _real_ world, he still can't shake the dreadful feeling that something isn't right. In fact, he's quite sure someone or thing is trying to tell him that something is _really wrong._

He's been having these horrid premonitions for a long while, this last one is the fifth one this month, and he just can't help but wonder if someone's attempting to warn him about something. Plus it's always the same dream over and over, just in different variations. Vacantly, he wonders if any of the other guardians are going through anything like this.

The first couple times he had them, he just shook them off as just his wild imagination, but as time went by, and the dreams got more frequent, he stopped classifying them as just ordinary nightmares. It's been months since they defeated Pitch. Something is clearly wrong, and though he feels a little foolish for having the idea to call the guardians together over just a bout of dreams, he knows he needs to let them know when something is up, as it is their duty to fix it.

Then it is settled, Jack thinks, grabbing his staff off a rack. He will travel to the North Pole and alert the guardians to discuss this matter, and maybe drop in a warning or two for Jamie and his friends on the way. He pokes his staff at the iced top of his pond, sending a spiderweb of cracks across it's area before he breaks loose and flies off into the morning sun, determined to get his message to his friends as early as possible.

* * *

Bunny always loved the meadows in his warren and takes pride that they are the most gorgeous but also peaceful spots of all the guardians' territories put together. The first time he brought Sophie here, he was sure she would love all the pretty colors and also be able to sleep there if she ever felt the need, and he turned out to be right! Ever since, they've been going there frequently, now being one of those times. The day is especially nice for a good frolic but today, Sophie has decided to spend it relaxing. Bunny doesn't really mind, it gives for a more peaceful atmosphere for actually getting things done for once. The girl has long since fallen asleep and is now dreaming peacefully among the weeds. Bunny checks to make sure she doesn't stir as he stands up and starts to quietly tiptoe away.

Once he feels he is out of earshot, he starts to bound excitedly toward the forest of full, green trees at the end of the meadow. He stops when he sees something. Something mysteriously familiar. He notices the brown-furred, cotton-tailed rabbit clearly now, relieved that it's not someone else. "Crikey! It's you again!" he says with uncharacteristic enthusiasm. This isn't the first time he's encountered this rabbit. But every time he tries to get close the image...disappears. The other rabbit is still at a distance, it doesn't seem to notice him at the moment.

Then something really disturbing happens. Something distracting in the corner of his vision. A dark, tentacle-like limb seems to be sprouting up out of literal nowhere right above the brown rabbit's head. When Bunny finally recognizes what it is, he cries out in desperate terror, "Look out!" The brown rabbit seems to finally notice him. It's head and ears perk up in his direction, it then turns it's cotton tail and flees to the trees. "No! Don't go that way!" But there are more of the black tentacles, they are ever-growing, and the cloud his vision with darkness, covering the frightened, brown rabbit from sight.

The sky is now dark and stormy, in contrast to the sunny, blissful light of a few seconds ago. In a blind panic, Bunny stumbles and struggles around, trying to get out of the looming binds and escape. Then he realizes what he left behind in the meadow. Sophie! He breaks free of the binding arms that clawed at him and pelts as fast as he can to where Sophie was, but all he finds is a dent in the grass where she used to lie. The darkness crawls over him. It's caught up with him again. It takes over his body, his mind, his SOUL.

Bunny wakes up in a cold sweat. He's in his den in his warren. It was that dream again. They won't stop and it's always the same thing all the time. That same brown rabbit and those same twisted tentacles.

A cold breeze strikes up all of a sudden and Bunny shivers. He knows what it means. He doesn't get cold like that in his warren. It has to be a message from the North Pole, calling the guardians together once again. This better be something more important than _he got a weird feeling, _Bunny thinks. Still, it will serve him well to get out and some fresh air. He says goodbye to all his egg guards and starts to create a new tunnel to the North Pole.


	2. Chapter 2

An icy breeze rides along the wind of the North Pole, wait a minute. No, that's not wind, Jack suddenly realizes. I'd know if it was wind. Before he can realize anymore about what is coming straight at him the pain of realization agonizingly sticks it's sharp, frigid shards of ice across the circumference of his face, covering it completely, and most of his once warm, blue hoodie.

Of course, being too busy getting attacked by ironic spears of snow, Jack lost control of his direction and is now spiraling this way and that. His eye's, once shut tight to keep the debris of the current, raging blizzard out, timidly crack a peak at the outside world to notice the huge snowbank right in front of his face into which he is about to smack. Of course it's too late too really do anything, so he does end up crashing to the ground and even can feel himself rolling deeper and deeper into the bank after the impact of the crash.

Jack forces his head up out of the snow as best he could. This is lame. Rapidly, he shakes his head in hopes to get all the stars he's seeing out as well as all the snow in his hair and stuck in his ear. This is pathetic. He would think that as the winter spirit, snow wouldn't phase him, but the blizzards up here in the North Pole are something different. Jack vacantly brushes it off as still being distracted by his most recent night terror and that he has a really bad feeling that it connects with something undeniably awful.

Jack looks up at the sky once he gets all the snow off himself and is relieved- albeit guilty to feel that way- that the blizzard seems to have died down just a bit. He hears a sudden shaking from the ground below him. First a blizzard and now an earthquake? That is sure what it feels like as even the bottomless, compact snowbank that encases Jack as it's captive is rumbling now. Even the mountains are rumbling now. Soon Jack is unable to see anything clearly. It's all a huge blur as the tremors grow stronger and stronger. The roar in his ears grows louder as well. It sounds as if one of the mountains is really a hidden, dormant volcano about to blow it's top.

The only sight left Jack can get that's the closest to a clear view is the bank from which he is currently struggling to escape. He notices a spot in the bank moving faster than the rest, as if it were the only actually moving within his peripheral vision. He finally realizes exactly just what it is when the snow seems to abruptly and literally fall out into a giant, dark hole in the ground.

As soon as he sees it he knows and is therefore far from surprised once he beholds the massive, grey ears rise out from the hole before a very alert-looking, furry face and torso, and then two, titanic, pooka legs. Jack watches with a blank face, unable to move- though that's probably because he's already stuck in the snow- as his fellow guardian emerges from one of his infamous rabbit holes in front of him. The guardians know Bunny does not normally show the most open emotions during times in need of his great sense of focus, so Jack notices right off the bat that he seems a little shaken up about something, "Hey, mate! What are you doing down there?"

The blizzard seems to have magically died down completely now, Jack being unable to control it since they're technically on North's turf. "Jack!" the boys hear a familiar voice through the dying but ongoing wind. They both look up to see Tooth flying toward them from the sky wearing a very concerned expression on her face. In her elegant nature she glides down and stops next to Jack. "What happened? I saw you go down! Are you alright?"

This is kind of awkward for Jack, thinking back to the irony of the spirit of winter being taken down by and then stuck in snow. He can hear Bunny nervously chuckling off to the side. "Yeah, I'm fine," he replies, trying his best to cover up the wriggling he's doing in order to escape the evil clutches of the northern snow, to hide the fact that he got caught in the first place.

Tooth narrows her eyes, not quite convinced yet, "Are you sure?"

Another awkward silence ensues. After a few long seconds have passed, Bunny sighs from his hole, "I gotcha, mate." He disappears into his hole again soon Jack suddenly feels something strange near his legs. The rumbling starts up again. The snow becomes looser around him. He tries his hardest to get out once he realizes he's free- maybe he's shaking too much for Tooth to notice him- but the ground is now too unstable for him to move about preferably. The snow encircling him gets repeatedly more and more slushy until it starts to sink,..pulling Jack in with it.

Panicking, Jack tries his hardest to scale the crumbling snow as best as he can before it all seems to just disappear beneath him, leaving him to fall into the sudden black expanse below, screaming for Tooth to help him, eyes wide with fear. He can hear Tooth wailing his name back to him.

He feels as if he will be falling forever, but really it's only a couple seconds before he lands right on top of Bunny's shoulders and is hoisted out of the ground and thrown a few feet away from the hole, past Tooth, onto snow that is a little more compact than the snow in the bank. "Crikey, mate! You're unbelievably heavy!" he hears Bunny yell.

Jack continues to tumble until he is stopped by something hard and dense. Once he comes to his sense he sees that they are two big, black, snow boots. "Ho ho ho! What do we have here?" Jack slowly looks up to see the welcoming, familiar face of Saint Nicholas.


	3. Chapter 3

It was a tough drag and wrap up back behind North's rigid, drawbridge door, but the four guardians were eventually able to make it. "Hy! Let us in, you stupid beast!" North roars, pounding his gruff fist against the drawbridge. The blizzard is going crazy again. Thousands of tiny snowflakes catch onto North's beard, hair, and hat.

Behind North and next to Tooth and Jack, Bunny hops impatiently, "Tell your overgrown pet to hurry up! It's freezing out here!"

North looks from Bunny to Tooth to Jack. Jack is fine but Bunny and Tooth shiver miserably in the never ending snow. Having spent over two centuries living in this very same workshop in this very same location, North has grown rather immune to the harsh snow. His thick, impenetrable hair and heavyset, full body snowsuit certainly don't hurt the situation either, though that doesn't stop him from getting annoyed at the snow catching on them every now and then. North looks up and gives the yeti in the tower a stern glare. The brown-furred creature immediately receives the subtle message, gives an affirmative salute, and quickly lowers the drawbridge. As soon as the bridge hits the snowy tundra, North hurriedly rushes his three guests into the building before it closes up behind them.

The four guardians stumble in, embracing the warmth that surrounds them and shaking off all the snow from their respective bodies. Bunny's skin seems to shake around himself, his fur a grey fireball surrounding his body for a few brief moments. North takes off his thick, Russian-style, ushanka and giant, snow coat and hangs them both up. He hears Bunny's voice behind him, "So, I'm to assume Sandy already made it here?"

"As a matter of fact, he has," North turns around and answers his guests' pondering. "He arrived so long before the rest of you showed up that we got bored from waiting so I told him to go check the toy factory to make sure the elves hadn't broken anything valuable while I go out and try to search for you guys. I feel bad for making him wait. I cannot imagine how the three of you managed to be so late."

"It's not like we can control the weather," Bunny remarks, kicking the last bit of snow out of his ear. He then glances at Jack. "Well, most of us can't."

"Well maybe a certain spirit of winter shouldn't have messed around and caused this storm," North now eyes Jack expectantly.

"It isn't me doing this!" Jack shakes his head in denial. "Lately there have been a lot of snowstorms occurring all around the world. I can stop them but they always come back."

Tooth gasps, "What if there's something else that's messing with the weather?"

"North," Bunny faces the guardian of wonder. "Is this what your distress call was about?"

North closes his eyes and motions, "You guys better follow me." They walk up a flight of stairs high above the workshop. If you look down you can see all the yetis working hard on children's toys for the upcoming holidays. Tooth giggles as they watch one grey yeti try to hammer in a nail on a blue, toy plane but hammer himself in the finger instead. "I sent Sandy up to the attic which has both the watchtower and my own bedroom. There are some elves in there I was worried that would get into trouble. Hopefully Sandy didn't let them touch anything of actual use." They continue to walk up the tediously long staircase. It's a good thing that Bunny's the only guest that has to walk up the stairs as opposed to flying. He's the only one with the exception of North who's climbed these stairs countless times to get up to his bedroom that has the leg strength to endure an upward trek to this extreme. Jack and Tooth are quite relieved that they can fly right now.

The stairs, although seemingly drag on forever, are very pretty to look at. A green, velvet carpet runs down the entirety of the steps with red, lacy figures of elves dancing joyfully on the sides.

They four guardians finally reach a huge, red door at the top of the stairs. It has a bit of a peculiar feel to it as it is the only thing the stairs lead to, ending them in a dead halt. "Stand back everyone," North's voice sounds trailing behind the group. "Let me open the door." He climbs past the three other guardians and up to the colossal door. He reaches his thick, black glove into his massive, fur-lined pocket and pulls out a bronze key. A sound of high pitched chanting faintly emanates from behind the door as North pushes the key into the door's black keyhole.

"Crikey!" Bunny's ear twitches. "Is there a rave going on in your bedroom, mate?"

North sighs as he twists the key in the keyhole and turns the bronze silver knob, "I knew they would be too much for him." He opens the door to reveal a small hall with only one door burrowed to the far right, North's bedroom. In the middle of the hallway there is a Christmas at the cafe-style meeting table that can only be described as Hallmark cute. It would be a nice-looking meeting room if not for the mess the elves seem to have made. Gift wrap of all colors lines the, snow-white, tile floor, not to mention the actually snow that seems to have been used in a fight all over the walls. Luckily, North's bedroom door is seemingly untouched, the holly-covered "do not disturb" sign hanging straight as possible.

The giggling ceases from the elves that are still awake. Sandy must've put the troublemakers to sleep once he reached the room. Sandy and the remaining elves direct their attention to the guardians' arrival. They all hold fat smirks on their faces. North takes one sweeping gaze around the hall and just shakes his head, "Well, fellow guardians, it seems we have some cleaning up to do."


End file.
